Shikhar Dhawan’s Punjab Kings (PBKS) took on Pat Cummins-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the 23rd match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, Chandigarh, on Tuesday, April 1. 9.
PBKS won the toss and elected to pitch first in the game. Between the two teams, there were no changes in the playing eleven and they decided to continue with the lineups without changes.
The PBKS bowlers made sure to back the team’s decision at the toss and bowled brilliantly against the SRH batsmen. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, who have been in good form, played their natural attacking brand of cricket.
After Travis Head got an early reprieve following Punjab Kings’ DRS-less error, things were going well for SRH until left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh came in and bowled a 2-wicket fourth over, removing Head and Aiden Markram. Sam Curran picked the third wicket of the match by dismissing Abhishek Sharma as SRH finished the powerplay at 40/3.
As SRH lost wickets at regular intervals and star players faltered, 20-year-old Nitish Kumar Reddy stood strong at one end and played a remarkable innings. The youngster batted with a lot of confidence and reached his first fifty in the IPL.
He was involved in an incredible 50-run partnership with Abdul Samad that played a key role in the visitors scoring 182/9. Reddy scored 64 runs and was the highest scorer for his team in the innings. For PBKS, Arshdeep Singh picked up 4 wickets, while Sam Curran and Harshal Patel picked up two wickets each.
Chasing the target, Punjab Kings’ top 3 failed miserably. Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow and Prabhsimran Singh returned to the hut in 5 overs, leaving PBKS at 20/3.
The middle order, however, did not disappoint PBKS as all batsmen contributed crucial runs. Sikandar Raza and Sam Curran added 38 runs together before Shashank Singh and Raza had a brilliant 33-run stand.
In the end, Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma destroyed the SRH bowlers and 29 runs were needed from 6 balls. Ashutosh gave his best but could not take his team home and SRH won by 2 runs in the exciting clash. Shashank Singh scored 46 while Ashutosh played an impressive knock of 33 runs.
I feel Shashank and Ashutosh played a great knock – Shikhar Dhawan
At the post-match presentation ceremony, Shikhar Dhawan praised Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma for playing sensational innings once again for PBKS. Shikhar Dhawan said:
“I feel Shashank and Ashutosh played a great knock, we restricted them to a good total but we couldn’t capitalize on the first 6 overs, we lost 3 wickets and that’s where we fell behind and it cost us in the end.”
Shikhar Dhawan further mentioned a fielding error by Harshal Patel on the last ball of the first innings, where the pacer overshot a Jaydev Unadkat delivery for a six and left Sam Curran angry. Shikhar Dhawan also blamed batting for his loss in the match. Shikhar Dhawan said:
“When the wicket didn’t offer much bounce, each individual will have to look back and change their approach. We dropped the last ball, we could have kept them down by 10-15 runs, but the batting let us down.”
Shikhar Dhawan, however, was delighted to see new players joining the team and hoped for a better performance from his team in the next match. He said:
“It’s great to see the youngsters contributing so consistently (in Shashank and Ashutosh). There was always hope that they could finish the game, but we came very close and that will give us confidence for future games, but we.” “We will have to do better in the future.”
